The invention relates to a method of sealing the gap between a rigid sliding roof and a fixed roof region of a motor car surrounding the same by means of an all-round cavity seal element which is housed beneath the fixed roof region by a groove formed between the latter and a rail attached to the roof which exhibits mutually spaced perforations in its upper member.
An arrangement of this type to seal a sliding roof is known from German Published Unexamined Patent Application (DE-OS) No. 3,634,271, where the perforations in the rail are used to compensate tolerances relating to a desired contact pressure of the cavity seal element. In order to give this seal element sufficient grip in the housing groove, it is necessary to attach the rail at a predetermined distance from the underside of the fixed roof region. This was done hitherto by the temporary use of distance gauges which had to be fastened before the assembly of the rail and then released again, which means a labor intensive and therefore expensive assembly stage.
An object of the invention is to reduce drastically the outlay for secondary operations for the precise dimensional attachment of the rail.
This object is achieved by inserting spacing elements via clip feet into the perforation, which spacing elements provide a predetermined spacing of the seal anchoring groove walls.
A local increase in the retaining force of the cavity seal element is achieved in preferred embodiments by providing that the head part of the spacing element exhibits a prismatic configuration and is provided with a knife-edge-like edge which bites into the cavity seal element when the latter is pushed in.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.